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Smart Home

Farsighted Lowe's Iris needs more time to develop

Iris by Lowe's could be a good smart-home system someday, but it isn't one right now.

2:12 / 15 April 2016

Transcript

What part of the world of improvement on its second generation smart home system.
We were lukewarm on the first.
It had fees just for basic features the app was pretty thin and we some of the devices slow and unresponsive.
This iteration does fix a lot of those issues.
Response time is snappier, device pairing is easier, and the app is much more functional.
As a result, Lowe's IRIS is showing a ton of promise with this system, but those fees are still there and they feel really unnecessary.
The app also has a lot of functionality, but it's really tedious and counter intuitive to use.
For instance, the rules section of the app doesn't actually let you add rules.
You have to come back to the dashboard, hit the plus button, and there's no custom rules in the rules section.
You have to find your specific device Under the category.
This all important dashboard of the app lists every single thing Lowe's Iris does whether you have compatible devices or not.
All together this costs $130 and you get the hub, you get a plug, you get a button that you can customize to rules.
you get two of these contact sensors And you're getting motion sensor.
And when it's working, every device in the pack responds to your commands in less than a second, which is pretty good.
But over the course of a couple of weeks of testing, some of the devices went in and out as far as being connected and this button, even though it was supposed to turn the lamp on, would only work Five out of six times.
But you need to pay a $10 monthly fee for basic features such as creating rules and groups, and getting certain types of notifications.
And on a lot of other smart home platforms, that stuff Stuff's free.
So look, Lowe's Iris is promising a ton of new hardware and capabilities for this system in the coming year.
But it's tough for me to recommend this system on potential, as a number of first gen customers felt Lowe's left them in the dust when they moved to the second generation without proper support for all the first gen devices.
So for right now gambling on this system to reach its potential by buying into the second gen Bose RDS system is not a bet I would make.

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